The Android Market: ‘It’s a loud, obnoxious baby’

Having ported a hit game from iOS, one developer reveals the good, the bad and the ugly

Battleheart character. Source: Mika Mobile

“With Battleheart having been on sale for a few weeks, I feel I’m equipped to offer up some impressions of the Android market from a developer’s perspective.”

So began a post Saturday by Noah Bordner, a veteran game animator (EA, Lukas Arts, Bungie) whose indie development house Mika Mobile has had several hits on Apple’s AAPL App Store. On May 31 he brought his latest, Battleheart, to Google’s GOOGAndroid platform.

Among his discoveries:

Paid apps can make good money on Android: “Daily revenue from Battleheart on Android is fairly close, within 80%, of its iOS counterpart at the moment. “

A good app on Android really stands out: “In fact, I’d go as far as to say that a polished, high quality product is more likely to be embraced on Android than on iOS because the quality bar on the Android market is so pathetically low.”

Installation across Android platforms a challenge: “Based on the amount of e-mails I get every day, download problems affect 1-2% of all buyers, or in more practical terms, somewhere between two and three shit-loads.”

Billing issues — which Apple handles on the App Store — are a nightmare on Android: “There are days where I just want to pull the plug on the whole thing because I’m sick of 12 year olds (or people with comparable communication skills) trying to convince me they’ve been wronged and I should give them their $3 back. I just remind myself that my user review average would indicate that it’s a vocal minority that has these problems, and I shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. It is a loud, obnoxious baby though.”